The Orphanage by the Lake

2.75, rounded up.

The plot is good. The story is driving, intense, with excellent suspense.

Although I was correct in the end as to who the villain was (but had no inkling as to how heinous the depth the villainy went), I only had a niggle early on, and then the story was crafted well to direct you in many other directions.

What let it down, for me, was some of the personal traits of the main protagonist, and how superficially some aspects were written. Specifically in the vain of "a man writing a woman".

Glad to have read it, but not the best I've read.